How to Recognize Emptiness?

In the process of studying and practicing the Buddha's Dharma, through long-term and extensive observation, once the wisdom of understanding people, affairs, principles, and phenomena has been elevated, one's thoughts and views will change; when views change, attitudes change; when attitudes change, behavior changes; when behavior changes, karma changes; when karma changes, retribution changes; and when retribution changes, wisdom is liberated. Liberation is fully and effectively recognizing the emptiness and illusoriness of all dharmas, no longer clinging to or grasping at any dharma; the world becomes empty and tranquil, and the mind is at peace. When one recognizes emptiness, everything in the world comes to seem of no consequence; one muddles through worldly affairs, and whether there is benefit in worldly matters no longer matters—what matters is that the mind is empty, that bodily, verbal, and mental actions have changed, that one no longer creates karmic actions of greed, hatred, and delusion and afflictions, and that retribution becomes wholesome. If one still cannot recognize emptiness, there is a self in the mind; where there is a self, there are afflictions and karmic actions of affliction.

Emptiness should be recognized gradually and ever more deeply from three aspects. The deepest is to recognize it from the perspective of the tathāgatagarbha, but without realizing the tathāgatagarbha, one cannot recognize emptiness in this way. Somewhat deeper is to recognize it from the perspective of the Four Noble Truths. The shallowest recognition of emptiness is from the perspective of worldly phenomena—this is an accumulation of experience and clever wisdom, the wisdom of worldly sages; of course it is far from ultimate, but it is still better than being without wisdom. The most thorough and ultimate recognition is to understand all dharmas from the perspective of the functions and operations of the seven intrinsically existing great seeds (earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, consciousness) within the tathāgatagarbha. In this way one can empty things to the very limit—even emptiness is emptied, and the emptiness of emptiness is also emptied, cutting off all mind and all objects; every dharma and every object becomes superfluous. At such a point, there is nothing more to be said: whatever is spoken is not it. There is no understanding beyond words, and still less any transmission through words.